June 7, 2015 — SITKA, Ala. — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council made its second controversial compromise of the year on June 7, again related to bycatch in the Bering Sea and again after lengthy, impassioned testimony.
The council passed an amended motion, submitted by Alaska Commissioner of Fish and Game Sam Cotten and amended by Washington State council member Bill Tweit, to cut the halibut bycatch rates for the Bering Sea groundfish fleet.
Amendment 80 cooperatives’ cap will be cut by 25 percent, Amendment 80 limited access by 40 percent, the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Trawl Limited Access Sector by 15 percent, non-trawl groundfish sectors including hook and line Pacific cod vessels by 15 percent, and Community Development Quota by 20 percent.
Like the April decision to cut salmon bycatch for the Bering Sea pollock fleet, the council’s June cuts left both sides of the issue feeling punished for a situation they blame on the council itself, along with the International Pacific Halibut Commission.
“We got screwed,” said Myron Melovidov, chairman of the Central Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association. “Plain and simple.”
Groundfish fishermen in the so-called Amendment 80 fleet, for their part, insist the cuts are deeper than they are equipped to handle.
Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce